Also: “You Bet Your Life” latest victim of Writer’s Strike; Detroit independent likely to become CW after it’s bought by a Nexstar affiliate; CW cuts off LIV Golf before end It was Chicago’s turn to stage some writer’s strike action this week as picketers descended on the NBC Tower Wednesday afternoon. The tower is home to NBC-owned WMAQ-TV and Telemundo’s […]
What’s on the media agenda in the first year of the new decade The new decade brings us things to look forward to in the world of media. So here’s are the ten things to keep your eye on in Chicago and in general for 2020. We’ll check back in at the end of the year to see how we […]
Also: NBC pulls two shows – but one is moving to digital. Fox 32 downgrades local show; Bless The Harts renewed for season two To say Chicago stations had a busy week is quite an understatement: in addition to reminding viewers (constantly) about re-scanning their sets, news stations were covering the second Chicago Public School Teachers strike in the last […]
Blockbuster deal includes 20th Century Fox film studio and programming library, cable and sports networks, and more In a history-making deal, The Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire much of 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion. The deal was speculated about for the last few weeks on this blog and elsewhere, as 21st Century Fox owner Rupert Murdoch was looking […]
Iconic actress passes away at 80, was a trailblazer for women in Hollywood The television community is mourning the loss of Mary Tyler Moore who died Wednesday at the age of 80. She was known for playing two iconic characters: Lauria Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Born in Brooklyn’s […]
While there is currently labor discord in the NFL and with public employees in Wisconsin, there is labor peace in one place where there was turmoil nearly four years ago – Hollywood. The Writers Guild of America and The Association of Motion Picture of Television Producers – who represents the major Hollywood studios and the television networks – reached a […]
All right, the strike is finally over. Now comes the toughest task of all: trying to win the viewers back. When Major League Baseball went on strike in 1994 and when the NHL players were locked out twice in the last fifteen years, it hurt both sports tremendously, and some teams are still feeling the effects. Locally, the Chicago White […]
It’s finally over. With 92.5 percent of the vote, the WGA on both coasts voted to return to work effective on Wednesday, ending the 14-week strike which cost everybody involved – the networks, the advertisers, the city of Los Angeles, the studios – and the writers. Snoopy: (c) United Features Syndicate, Inc.
Independents Lionsgate and Marvel Productions have signed interim deals with the Writer’s Guild, meaning those entities are no longer struck companies. Lionsgate produces Mad Men for AMC and Weeds for Showtime, while Marvel Productions’ current projects the company is working on include Captain America and Thor. Marvel, of course, produced animated programs based on characters from Marvel Comics, including Spider-Man […]
Get your pickets ready, because it looks like there’s going to be no show – particularly for late-night talkers Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert, who are going to be the first affected by a strike.